Introduction

Csound is a unit generator-based, user-programmable computer
music system. It was originally written by Barry Vercoe at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 as the first C language
version of this type of software. Since then Csound has received
numerous contributions from researchers, programmers, and musicians
from around the world.

Around 1991, John ffitch ported Csound to Microsoft DOS. Csound
currently runs on many varieties of UNIX and Linux, Microsoft DOS and
Windows, all versions of the Macintosh operating system including Mac
OS X, and others.

There are newer computer music systems that have graphical patch
editors (e.g. Max/MSP, PD, jMax, or Open Sound World), or that use
more advanced techniques of software engineering (e.g. Nyquist or
SuperCollider). Yet Csound still has the largest and most varied set
of unit generators, is the best documented, runs on the most
platforms, and is the easiest to extend. It is possible to compile
Csound using double-precision arithmetic throughout for superior sound
quality. In short, Csound must be considered one of the most powerful
musical instruments ever created.

In addition to this "canonical" version of Csound and
CsoundAC, there are other versions of Csound and other front ends for
Csound, many of which can be found at http://csounds.com.